The Shebang
The Shebang is a current hit radio show broadcast in Australia as part of the Austereo Radio Network, on the radio station Triple M. [1]
The show mainly works around observational humour, derived from various media sources. Fifi and Marty have often admitted that their sources come from as diverse places as 'girly mags' to Marty's accountant (Paul). Marty has even admitted on air that his accountant is a top 32 Golden Tee player in the world.
Characters
The three main characters of the show are Fifi Box, who decided to pursue a career in radio in 1995 whilst lying in hospital recovering from a life threatening illness, Marty Sheargold, an accomplished writer, actor and headlining comic and Brownie (sometimes known as Woonsie) whose bio is apparently so uninteresting that the Triple M website features a description of TV hostess and one time musical sensation Toni Pearen instead. The show is aired (East Standard Australian Time) 4pm to 6pm weekdays, although it was originally on from 4pm to 7pm.
Marty has recently been bemoaning Fifi's 'rising star', as she has been appearing on Australian television shows Sunrise and Thank God You're Here, while Marty appears to be doing relatively little with his life by comparison. Fifi has also been recently asked to appear on Netwok Ten's "Australia's Braniest Comedian", which was infeasible for her because she had a wedding on at the time it was to be filmed. She had a feeling of accomplishment at it since she has been "working on her comedy" for over 18 months. Marty and Fifi have argued over such things as the pronunciation of cummerbund and Marty's spelling.
Audience
The time slot and varied content make the show popular with young people, and often the funniest comments come from stories told by the listeners themselves. It is said that Marty has a particular penchant for hearing listeners say they are "long time listeners, first time callers". The SheBangers as they are sometimes known, have Australian expatriate listeners from diverse places as North America to Europe. Since podcasting their daily show, they have reached a much more international audience, many of whom are Australians living abroad.
Segments
Perhaps the longest running joke within The Shebang is Marty poking fun at Fifi for being a pregnant lesbian with her top off, and calling her a "naughty, diiirrty little bird". Of course there is little truth to this. Often the issue of Fifi's relationships has been a focal point of the show, with Box sharing her insights to her previous relationships, which had on-air nicknames (including funtop, soulmate, looney tunes, mystery man, anklet and landscaper). It has recently been revealed that she has a new boyfriend (AKA 'The Man'). So far 'The Man' has booked a hotel without an Air Conditioner as Fifi was recovering from a tonsilectomy, bought her a $14.95 book for her 30th birthday (although admittedly Fifi thought that it was her 29th) and admitted that he'd rather lose his sense of sight as opposed to his sense of smell (as Fifi suggested would probably be a better sense to lose).
One of the most popular segments on the show was the reading of the 'Mayor of Casterbridge', which took over from Marty's reading of Tim Winton's 'Cloud Street' (a book inflicted on all final year students in New South Wales). Often Sheargold tried lobby the listeners into trying to return to his particular literarture choice, however Fifi's hilarious readings of the 'Mayor' became a staple, the highlight being her inability to do proper accents which turn out sounding like some amalgamation of English and Indian. Fifi, who's funniest moments often arise out of her inability to act calmly under pressure and do accents, has landed in commercial radio hot water. When working for regional radio station 2MC Port Macquarie, Fifi laughed inappropriately due to a co-worker during the reading of the obituaries, and was subsequently fired. This seems to be a 'theme' in Box's career, yet because of her outrageousness always seems to come out on top. It is perhaps a case of one step back so that she can take two steps forward. Box's big break into radio occurred in 2003 when on her first shift she rang a potential love interest to confess to him that she was not French and her name was not Pascale (a rouse she had created on a drunken night out). He unceremoniously dumped her on air and Fifi instantly won legions of fans.
They use the catchphrase "Is it in the Funk & Wagnells?" when querying something, but explicitly deny that they hold a secret lifelong ambition to get their names to appear in a Funk and Wagnells listing. During their radio show on the 24th Feb 2006, they described the show's description in this Wikipedia article as being "spot on".
They have released a few CDs, with their most recent being 'The Shebang - Rebanged'.
Popular segments within the show are Friday Fun Ones, Amazing Facts, Chris Murray's Movie Reviews, Embarrassing Slips of the Tongues, Great Wastes of Money, Unfortunate Deaths involving an Idiot, Dad's Crap Jokes (named after Fifi's Dad's antics), 6 Billion to One, German Files, Movie Karaoke, When Impersonations/Accents go wrong, "I have always believed in the kindness of strangers...", When Teachers Go Crazy (not the exact title), Call Us if You're a Celebrity, Great Escapes and their perennial classic Captain Obvious.
Their regular guests include Chris Murray, Glenn Robbins, Mark Beretta, Lawrence Mooney, Paul Calleja and Steve Curry. Former regular guests include Jamie Durie, Peter Rowsthorn, Scott Cam, Andrew Denton, Richard Marsland, Steve Richards, Tony Martin, Liz Ellis, Johanna Griggs and David Koch.
Former anchor Byron Cooke moved to America with fiancé Chrissie Cooke to work in radio in Los Angeles. He was briefly replaced by Adam Barrat in the latter part of 2005, before Brownie took up the reigns in 2006.
Quotes
"What's in Fifi's Box? It's shear gold!" - Fifi
"Is it Bec?" - Marty
"Burglarising." - Fifi
"Kick a chimp if you can." Marty
"Bulla to our Fiji listeners!" - Marty
"Bulla vanaca!" - Marty and Fifi
"Mixin' it up." - Fifi
"Mix it up - don't mess it up." - Marty
SubQuestions
Sometime around the start of 2004, Marty and Fifi occasionally started asking 'sub-questions' as part of their phone topics. For example, if the phone-in question was 'name your celebrity crush', then they would follow this up with a random sub-question ie: 'what's your favourite bun', or 'what's your favourite smell'.
From the School that Brought you...
Similarly to the subquestions, Marty and Fifi have also done a number of phoner-series'.
"From the school that brought you 'Where have you been trapped?' and 'Where have you been stuck?'...'Where have you been wedged?'"
Mentionable examples include "Where have you put your brother/sister?", "Who would win a fight between Kerry Anne and Bert Newton/Tracy Grimshaw and Naomi Robsin/Andrew O'Keefe and Ed Phillips/Jemima and Big Ted?" and the timeless classic: "Where have you been trapped/stuck/wedged?"
Shebang Polls
Every once in a while, Marty and Fifi decide to do a poll where they take in calls from listeners and tally up the votes. Fifi will then calculate the end result as a percentage. For example "Women, do you like moustaches?"